Over the past two evenings CNN along with the LA Times and Politico.com brought us the final debates with the Republicans and Democratic candidates before Super Tuesday. Whatever side you fall on Republican, Democrat, or Independent we all know that we are getting to the point where these events are history making. This is an election that will be talked about for generations and generations to come and I could not be more excited by this. So rather then telling you what happened during the debates, I want to share some pictures from the two California Debates.
image courtesy of CNN American Morning's John Roberts anchored from the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California on Wednesday morning. The site made for an excellent backdrop for AM and for CNN's Republican Debates. Thanks to BA for the clips of JR giving us the grand tour of Air Force One and the Oval Office.
John's spent the morning in the Reagan Library's replica of the Oval Office and of course he couldn't resist taking a sit behind the Presidential desk. All that was missing was a little 'Hail to the Chief'!
Scott Zamost, an investigative journalist who has won nearly every major broadcast journalism award for his hard-hitting reports, has joined CNN as an investigative producer in Atlanta, CNN announced on Wednesday. Zamost most recently was the investigative producer for WTVJ-TV/NBC 6 in Miami.
His awards include a national award from Investigative Reporters and Editors and a National Press Club award in 2007; two National Clarion awards for investigative reporting; four Edward R. Murrow awards; three National Headliner awards; numerous state, regional and national awards from the Associated Press and the Society of Professional Journalists and 23 Emmy awards and 43 Emmy nominations.
CABLE RANKINGS, TWO DEBATES, AND PRIMARY COVERAGE WHAT MORE COULD YOU WANT ON CABLE NEWS/INFORMATION?
Yup, cable news/information channels each can have a story this week with a debate and primary coverage and regular programming averages. On top of that, cable channels issued their January ratings press releases, and if you look at all of them, you would think everyone won. Well, everyone did have some great highlights thanks to the interest in the political climate, the writer’s strike and special programming even on the weekends.
Over the last six months, the cable news/information channel wars have heated up, and even internet sites can take sides. But let’s point out the positives for CNN, because there are many.
CNN has stated their goal is to be the “go-to” channel in 2008 for politics. When it comes to primary coverage and debates, they are succeeding. For the first time in a very, very long time, they ranked #7 of the Top 20 cable programs last week with the Democratic Debate on January 21, 2008. Cable news/information channels rarely rank in the Top 20 Cable programs due to the way Nielsen issues them – based on total viewers 2+. Trust me when I say there are a lot of “twoplusers” who watch SPONGBOB SQUAREPANTS – like 10 of the Top 20 program slots were taken by that show. CNN is the strongest cable channel in delivering debate audiences. It has five of the Top 10 debates for the 2007-08 primary season, with the Jan. 21, 2008 debate being the strongest debate audience of any cable channel since 1996. CNN delivered double the Adult 18-34 audience versus the strongest Fox News debate (1/10/2008) and close to triple MSNBC’s (1/24/08) best performance with the young demographic. CNN doubled Fox News’ best performance for Adults 18-49 with this debate and was almost 2 and ½ times the delivery of MSNBC.
CNN South Carolina Democratic Debate audience, Monday, Jan. 21, 2008:^
Now, there will be some who will tell you that the preferred demographic in news is Adults 25-54, not 18-49 or 18-34. Well, while it’s true that news/information skews old, it is a PLUS to an advertiser to deliver the very sought after demographic of Adults 18-49. It is a key demographic in the advertising world, period. And for a news channel to deliver a decent amount of Adults 18-34 – well it’s just another plus. There are no negatives in delivering a younger audience – far more valuable than delivering a 55+ audience - ask any advertiser. Consider what Adults 25-54 means. Only 5 years of that age group falls outside Adults 18-49 – the gold standard in demographic delivery, regardless of channel or network. And anytime a cable channel can reach all age groups with political information that might encourage younger age groups to become involved in the process - that is a good thing – not something to be dismissed. Thank you, but I’ll take all the 18-34 and any 18-49 I can get in news audiences.
We’ll now cover regular programming, the primary coverage on Saturday Jan. 26, 2008 and brief comments on the month (because we cover the channels every week):
This is a time period for CNN that has its ups and downs. With two Lou Dobbs specials this week, and an uneven performance with the new Election Center, this is still not the strongest time period for CNN. But, ELECTION CENTER is up about 11% from last week’s performance. Bill O’Reilly continues to take the time period with COUNTDOWN a strong second.
9PM: Fox News: 400,000 CNN: 382,000** MSNBC: 180,000***
Lots of special programming pre-empted regular programming for this hour, but LKL had an outstanding performance on Tuesday night – 572,000 versus his weekly average of 382,000. The week prior, LKL’s weekly average was 323,000 – so that Tuesday performance was well above what the program normally delivers for Adults 25-54. CNN took some blog hits that they fell substantially from the Monday debate performance. All regular programming falls from event programming. However, the Tuesday performance was 67% HIGHER than LKL’s regular program average. He was far and away the #1 program in the competitive 9PM time period Tuesday. Was it a “bump” from the prior night’s debate? In all likelihood, it was the late breaking news of the tragic death of Heath Ledger. HANNITY & COLMES had a good week and with Dan Abrams only airing three times that week, brought up the rear.
10PM: Fox News: 374,000 CNN: 595,000+ MSNBC: 228,000****
On the surface, yes, AC360 beat GRETA substantially last week with the strength of the post debate analysis on Monday being classified as a 360 and the strong performance of the program the next night. Tuesday, while it fell from the Monday debate analysis, once again like LKL, it was far stronger than its normal audience delivery. Tuesday’s 360 soundly beat GRETA by 86,000 viewers – that’s a lot in anyone’s book. While I don’t think it is really fair to code debate analysis with the same debate staff as a “360,” Nielsen has accepted it, so I have averaged it in. I have given you the excluded average in the footnotes so you can see the difference. We are all dependent on how channels code their programming and if Nielsen accepts it, that decides it, not me. MSNBC programming came in last with its “docbloc.”
Program Note: MSNBC also had a Republican debate on Thursday, Jan. 24, 2008 and was their strongest debate delivery to date for this channel. Its 2+ audience was 2,636,000 (far off of CNN’s Monday Democratic debate average) and was #1 in the 9PM-11PM time period.
South Carolina Primary Coverage, Saturday, Jan. 26, 2008: ^
Once again, CNN led the primary coverage of the South Carolina Primary on Saturday for Adults 25-54. They were edged out of a 2+ win by Fox News, but had a higher audience peak of primary coverage than Fox News for the entire evening at 9PM with 1,917,000 viewers over Fox News’ 1,365,000.
JANUARY NOTES:^ CNN has made real inroads in audience delivery particularly in the 9PM and 10PM hours in primetime for Adults 25-54. With a strong debate, primary and regular programming, it paid off for 360 to be able to win the 10PM TIME PERIOD BLOCK against GRETA – 382,000 versus 360,000. It was a real high point for CNN and we’ll see if it keeps up this year.
CNN far and away had the best debate delivery for Adults 25-54, Adults 18-34, Adults 18-49 and Total audience 2+ for debates which aired in January, 2008 (there was one for each channel – Fox News, CNN and MSNBC).
CNN has the top three debates in cable news history in Total Audience 2+, Adults 18-34, Adults 18-49 and Adults 25-54.
There were several other TIME PERIOD advantages that CNN had, but they were based on time period averages for Monday – Friday or Monday – Sunday. We tend to look at programs unless I specify it is a time period average. In any case, CNN had a great January.
Whew! See you next week! RATINGS GURU
*4 day average; debate aired Monday; includes two Lou Dobbs election specials – Tues/Fri. **4 day average; debate aired Monday. ***3 day average; “Docbloc” airs Fri; debate aired Thur. +Includes Special AC360 debate analysis Monday versus regular program average of 373,000. ****4 day average; debate aired Thur. ^Courtesy Nielsen Media Research; Adults 25-54 and other audience where noted; Live + Same Day (LS); Fast Track Nationals.
Thanks, as always to our Ratings Guru and I'll see you back here next week. ~ Phebe
If you're working with Jack Cafferty don't show up late for the broadcast- especially with an excuse like "I had lunch with the President." Evidently, that's the equivalent of saying that the "dog ate my homework".
Monday's Situation Room started off with John King anchoring. Viewers were reassured that Wolf Blitzer would be there soon. Blitzer did show up and it was explained that he had had lunch at the White House (as is tradition on the day of the State of the Union address). Blitzer hasn't master the art of being in two cities at once, so he joined The Situation Room's broadcast as soon as he was able to get from Washington, D.C. to the CNN Election Center in New York. Cafferty wasn't invited to the luncheon and wasn't all that impressed. I've put together a string of the comments that were made during about Blitzer's absence over the course of the three hour broadcast:
Blitzer blogged about the lunch. Did you ever think that you would see Wolf Blitzer blog about what he had for lunch? I'll save you the effort of heading over to CNNPolitics.com- here's his post from yesterday afternoon:
Posted: 04:05 PM ET
This is the final pre-State of the Union reporters' lunch in the Bush White House.
WASHINGTON (CNN) — It's an annual State of the Union Day tradition: the president invites the TV network anchors and Sunday talk show hosts for lunch at the White House. The ground rules are that we can say we went to the luncheon, but the session is for our background only — meaning largely off the record. Still, it's a good way for us to pierce — at least a little — President Bush's thinking.
He comes across as determined to squeeze in as much as he can during this final year in office. It reminded me of what I used to hear from President Clinton when he had a year left. (He used to have similar background sessions with reporters.) They love being president and want to savor every minute.
President Bush does not come across as overly nostalgic — though he no doubt has to feel that way. It would be only natural. There is way too much unfinished business, including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; Iran; the Israeli-Palestinian peace deal which he believes is within reach; and the enormous domestic issues on his plate, including the economy. He is laying it all out in his State of the Union address. He professes not to be overly concerned about his legacy. That will be left to historians.
For those of you who are interested, we had lunch upstairs in the White House residence — in the Yellow Oval Office, as it is called. Vice President Cheney also attended. On the menu: mushroom and ricotta ravioli, seared salmon, white asparagus and mini tomato salad, and warm gingerbread cake with praline ice cream. It was delicious. The wine (which I didn't drink because I had to get right back to work) was a 2004 Peter Michael Chardonnay "Ma Belle-Fille."
I spent seven years covering Bill Clinton when he was President, as CNN's Senior White House correspondent. And I have attended several of these luncheons with President Bush. For a reporter, I must say, it is always fascinating getting a chance to see these leaders up close.
–CNN Anchor Wolf Blitzer
Cafferty wasn't the only one that didn't get an invitation to the luncheon. Turns out Lou Dobbs not only didn't get an invitation to the luncheon, he also didn't get an invitation to the White House Christmas party. But, Dobbs was there in spirit, sort of. Turns out there was a discussion at the luncheon about the failed immigration legislation that the White House supported and the White House blames Dobbs for contributing to its failure. Dobbs was thrilled.
Are you planning on watching the ‘Super Bowl’ of Presidential Debates this week? From the CNN Pressroom, here is some additional information about this week's programming:
CNN, the Los Angeles Times and POLITICO are conducting back-to-back presidential primary debates less than one week before Super Tuesday. The Republican debate on Wednesday, Jan. 30, and the Democratic debate on Thursday, Jan. 31, will be the final face-off for the candidates before primary voters in more than 20 states flock to the polls on Tuesday, Feb. 5.
Each debate will run approximately 90 minutes beginning at 8 p.m. (ET)/5 p.m. (PT).
Anchor Anderson Cooper will moderate the Republican candidates’ debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. Jim VandeHei, executive editor of the POLITICO, and Janet Hook, senior political correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, will serve as panelists questioning the candidates. CNN’s lead political anchor Wolf Blitzer will moderate the Democratic candidates’ debate at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood and Highland the following night. Panelists will be Doyle McManus, Washington bureau chief of the Los Angeles Times, and Jeanne Cummings, a senior correspondent for the POLITICO.
All three partners will provide robust, online elements in conjunction with the debates. The Los Angeles Times will offer readers live analysis at http://latimes.com/campaign08 as well as a “Top of the Ticket” blog, discussion boards and live streaming video direct from the Kodak Theatre. These elements complement the Times’ ongoing news coverage, editorials and analysis intended to aid voters in making informed decisions on Super Tuesday.
For the debates, POLITICO has gathered thousands of questions for the candidates from its readers across the country. Viewers can log on to POLITICO.com during the debates to vote for the questions panelists will ask the candidates. POLITICO.com will also feature a live blog all night from the debate halls, post-debate analysis, behind-the-scenes video, photos and more.
CNN International and CNN en Español will simulcast both debates. Anchor and correspondent Richard Quest will report live from Los Angeles as part of his “American Quest” tour.
Headline News will re-air the Republican debate on Thursday, Jan. 31, from 10 a.m. to noon (ET) and the Democratic debate on Friday, Feb. 1, from 10 a.m. to noon. (ET).
CNN Productions plans to produce a series of one-hour documentaries in 2008 under its successful Broken Government brand. As it did in the 2006 midterm election, the series seeks to offer clarity to the political topics receiving close attention during the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign.
The first documentary in the series, Broken Government: Health Care Critical Condition, is reported by CNN’s chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Critical Condition will premiere on Thursday, Jan. 31, at 11 p.m., immediately following the CNN/Los Angeles Times/POLITICO Democratic Presidential Candidates Debate and will replay on Saturday, Feb. 2, and Sunday, Feb. 3, at 11 p.m. All times Eastern.
In Critical Condition, Gupta focuses on the gaps in health care coverage experienced by the more than 45 million Americans who lack adequate health insurance. These include consumers with health insurance still vulnerable to bankruptcy by medical bills and the uninsured who cannot afford healthcare. Gupta also examines various health care plan proposals and the pros and cons of universal health care coverage in other countries.
Other Broken Government documentaries in the 2008 series will feature CNN’s Rick Sanchez taking an in-depth look at inconsistent and ineffective U.S. immigration policies; chief technology and environment correspondent Miles O’Brien investigating the impact of government policies on the environment; and a documentary on the government failures at the federal, state and local levels that continue to plague those impacted by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Additional programs in the series will be announced later in the campaign season.
CNN issued a press release regarding their campaign coverage up to and including Super Tuesday.
With more viewers turning to CNN for their primary election night and debate coverage than any other cable news network, CNN will offer marathon political programming leading up to Super Tuesday, the most important primary day in of the 2008 election.
Coverage will kick off on Saturday, Jan. 26, with a four-hour installment of “Ballot Bowl,” uninterrupted coverage of Democratic and Republican candidates’ significant live and recent events, leading up to the network’s coverage of the Democratic primary in South Carolina. Extended political programming continues through Monday, Jan. 28, with President George W. Bush’s final State of the Union address and through Super Tuesday on Feb. 5 with a 40-hour marathon of continuous live political coverage.
Building on the enormous success of CNN’s presidential primary debates, CNN, the Los Angeles Times and POLITICO will hold two back-to-back presidential primary debates, the final face-off before more than 20 states flock to the polls for Super Tuesday. The Republican debate will take place on Wednesday, Jan. 30, at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif., and the Democratic debate will take place on Thursday, Jan. 31, at the Kodak Theater in Los Angeles.Anchor Anderson Cooper will moderate the Republican candidates’ debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. Jim VandeHei, executive editor of the POLITICO, and Janet Hook, senior political correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, will serve as panelists questioning the candidates. CNN’s lead political anchor Wolf Blitzer will moderate the Democratic candidates’ debate at the Kodak Theater the following night. Panelists will include Doyle McManus, Washington bureau chief of the Los Angeles Times, and Jeanne Cummings, a senior correspondent for the POLITICO. Each debate will run approximately 2 hours beginning at 8 p.m. (ET).
Larry King will host a one-hour special “The Reagan I Knew” on Wednesday, Jan. 30. Following the Jan. 31 Democratic debate at 11 p.m., senior medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta will present the documentary Broken Government: Health Care Critical Condition. CNN’s Super Tuesday programming will be announced soon; programming until that date includes:
Saturday, Jan. 26
2 p.m.-6 p.m. Ballot Bowl
6 p.m.-10 p.m. Special South Carolina primary edition of CNN Election Center live from the CNN Election Center in New York
Monday, Jan. 28
6 a.m.-9 a.m. American Morning with John Roberts live on Capitol Hill
4 p.m.-7 p.m. The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer live from the CNN Election Center in New York
7 p.m.-8 p.m Pre-State of the Union edition of Lou Dobbs Tonight
8 p.m.-9 p.m Special State of the Union edition of CNN Election Center
9 p.m.-10:30 p.m. Live coverage of the State of the Union address with analysis coverage anchored by Blitzer
10:30 p.m.-12 a.m. Anderson Cooper anchors a special edition of Anderson Cooper 360°
Tuesday, Jan. 29
6 a.m.-9 a.m. American Morning with John Roberts live from Florida
8 p.m.-12 a.m. Live special coverage of the Florida primaries. Blitzer anchors from the CNN Election Center in New York. Cooper joins live from the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library
12 a.m.-1 a.m. Special live edition of Larry King Live
Wednesday, Jan. 30
6 a.m.-9 a.m. American Morning with John Roberts live on location at the Reagan Library
4 p.m.-7 p.m. The Situation Room live at the Kodak Theater in Los Angeles
7 p.m.-8 p.m Pre-debate edition of Lou Dobbs Tonight8 p.m.-10 p.m. CNN/Los Angeles Times/POLITICO Republican Candidates Debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library
10 p.m.-11 p.m. Anderson Cooper 360º with Cooper live on location at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library
11 p.m.-12 a.m. Larry King special, “The Reagan I Knew” (debut)
12 a.m.-1:30 a.m. CNN/Los Angeles Times/POLITICO Republican Candidates Debate – Encore Presentation
Thursday, Jan. 31
6 a.m.-9 a.m. American Morning with John Roberts live on location at the Kodak Theater
4 p.m.-7 p.m. The Situation Room live on location at the Kodak Theater in Los Angeles
7 p.m.-8 p.m Pre-debate edition of Lou Dobbs Tonight8 p.m.-10 p.m. CNN/Los Angeles Times/POLITICO Democratic Candidates Debate
10 p.m.-11 p.m. Special post-debate edition of Anderson Cooper 360º
11 p.m.-12 a.m. Broken Government: Health Care Critical Condition with Dr. Sanjay Gupta (debut)
12 a.m. -1:30 a.m.CNN/Los Angeles Times/POLITICO Democratic Candidates Debate – Encore Presentation
Friday, Feb. 1
6 a.m.-9 a.m. American Morning with John Roberts live on location at the Kodak Theater CNN’s Emmy Award-winning political team will be covering all aspects of the campaign trail. Dana Bash, John King and Mary Snow will be covering the Republican candidates, and Candy Crowley, Suzanne Malveaux and Jessica Yellin will be reporting on the Democrats. Also providing reports will be CNN correspondents Jim Acosta, Tom Foreman, Joe Johns, Chris Lawrence and Dan Lothian; Gloria Borger; senior political analyst; Jack Cafferty, commentator; David Gergen, senior political analyst; Bill Schneider, senior political analyst; and Jeff Toobin, legal analyst; and CNN’s nationally known contributors Bill Bennett, Carl Bernstein, Donna Brazile, Amy Holmes and Roland Martin.
CNN International and CNN en Español will simulcast both debates. Anchor and correspondent Richard Quest will report live from Los Angeles as part of his “American Quest” tour. Headline News will re-air the Republican debate on Thursday, Jan. 31, from 10 a.m. to noon (ET) and the Democratic debate on Friday, Feb. 1, from 10 a.m. to noon. (ET).
Up-to-the minute reporting and analysis will be available at CNNPolitics.com, the CNN Political Ticker at www.CNN.com/ticker and at CNN.com Live, accessible at www.CNN.com/Live. CNN.com Live will provide extended coverage with anchors Reggie Aqui, Naamua Delaney, Nicole Lapin and Melissa Long co-anchoring from the Election Center in New York and from the CNN.com Live studio in Atlanta.
Through Super Tuesday, CNN Radio will provide live coverage anchored by Lisa Desjardins, Jim Roope and Dick Uliano. CNN Newsource will provide its affiliates access to live reports on-site from “RunningMate” exclusive correspondent Samantha Hayes.
In addition, the CNN Election Express – a state-of-the-art mobile news bureau – will be part of CNN’s unmatched coverage as it makes its way across the country, arriving in Los Angeles before the debates and remaining in California through Super Tuesday.
Each month in 2008, CNN Student News will be “Talking Democracy” by introducing an election-year topic in the show and online. From caucus to convention and primary to poll, CNN Student News will break down these election-year concepts. Teachers, parents and students can find the CNN Student News program and its curriculum materials online at www.CNNStudentNews.com and on Headline News from Monday through Friday at 4 a.m. (ET)
A recent post on Greg Sargent's blog, Horses Mouth Home, confirmed my suspicions that the disappearance of long time regular commentators was not accidental.
Have you noticed anyone missing from the CNN Election Center on primary nights?
For the last several weeks James Carville and Paul Begala have not been seen anywhere near the Election Center or the Situation Room. CNN has removed them as well as Robert Zimmerman from their line up because they are supporting Senator Clinton.
Sam Feist, CNN's political director, also confirmed the decision to me. "As we got closer to the voting, we made a decision to make sure that all the analysts that are on are non-aligned," Feist said, adding that the decision had been made around the start of December. "Carville and Begala are two of the best analysts around and we look forward to seeing them on CNN plenty of times in the future, once the nominating process has ended."
Feist pointed out that a few other analysts aligned with campaigns of both parties had been told the same, and added that aligned analysts would only be appearing in contexts where they were acting as campaign surrogates. Carville did appear on Larry King on Jan. 9 as a surrogate.
Carville and Begala's presence on CNN has led to criticism for the network in the past. A few months ago the liberal blogosphere roundly condemned CNN for presenting them as neutral observers without identifying them clearly and frequently as Hillary supporters. In response to the criticism, CNN started identifying them as Hillary backers.
Interestingly, not everyone at CNN appears to agree with this decision. "People inside CNN are surprised," one person involved with CNN programming told me. "No other network buckled to this political pressure. CNN has removed from its lineup top analysts who know about the national political scene."
I can't say that I've ever mistaken Begala or Carville for unbiased commentators while watching them on CNN. And I've missed the opinions that they could offer during this primary season. Who better to offer an insight into the Clinton political machine than those who once worked for it! I'm disappointed with CNN for not believing that their viewers are intelligent enough to decide for themselves whether or not Zimmerman, Carville, or Begala's analysis is accurate.
I fully expect that political commentators like Bill Bennett, Amy Holmes, Donna Brazile, and Roland Martin are going to be biased. I thought that was the whole point - to offer a variety of viewpoints during the election season and let the viewers make up their own minds.
It would be completely different if they were working for the campaign. Ed Rollins absence is understandable since he's become part of Governor Huckabee's campaign.
I don't think that a commentator having a pubic opinion about the campaign is enough to banish them from the discussion. That's my opinions. What's yours?
Enough of my soap box and onto lighter things. Last weekend, John Zarrella filed a story about a young reporter covering the 2008 Election. Shelby Fallin, who is only 9 years old, reports for Scholastic News. Below is a clip from the report:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mystery Journalist
This week's Mystery Journalist was a challenge for me. I've struggle to find an appropriate picture that wasn't completely obvious. Yes, this week's Mystery Journalist was Anderson Cooper.
The morning after Yet Another Debate, John Roberts spoke with Ali Velshi about the crazy economic situation as Ali prepared to leave for his trip on the Election Express -- as Phebe mentioned Wednesday, Ali is going from Myrtle Beach to Los Angeles, stopping all along the way to see how Americans are viewing this political campaign.
In this clip, Ali gives us a tour inside the bus just before it heads out on the road:
And this is a sneak peek inside the tent set up for the American Morning broadcast. Plus, John tells us the secrets to staying warm at the crack of dawn:
What a gorgeous backdrop John had there... almost makes it worth being so cold!
Where in the World...?
Sunday, Susan Roesgen was in Atlanta co-hosting Sunday Morning with TJ Holmes, while Rick Sanchez filled in for Ali Velshi on Your Money. On the political front, Dana Bash and Suzanne Malveaux reported from Charleston, South Carolina, while John King was in New Port Richey, Florida. Monday, John had moved on to Orlando. And John Roberts, Wolf Blitzer, Candy Crowley, and Ali Velshi were all in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. On Tuesday, Ali boarded the Election Express to begin his cross-country trek. And John King was in Fort Walton Beach, Florida.
Wednesday, John Roberts was back in NYC. During the day, Dana Bash reported from both Estero and Jerome Florida, while John King was in Fort Lauderdale. Soledad O'Brien co-hosted Election Center from NY, and Ali Velshi had made it to Little Rock, Arkansas.
Thursday, John King was in Boca Raton, Florida; Dana Bash was in Hollywood, Florida; Candy Crowley was in Columbia, South Carolina; Suzanne Malveaux was in Beaufort, South Carolina. Soledad again co-hosted Election Center. Zain Verjee remains in Nairobi, Kenya. And Michael Holmes (above) reported from Baghdad; he had just come off an 8-day embed in Mosul. (For those of you keeping score, Michael Ware is still on vacation. I know, I know...hang in there, he'll be back soon!)
On Friday, John Roberts was in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina for American Morning, and Dana Bash was in Miami.
And I hate to post and run, but I work weekends (and they have a firewall that blocks Blogger -- the nerve!) so it's out into that cold, rainy day and off to the J-O-B. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!
CNN has really stepped up their blogs over the last few weeks. There have been a variety of contributors and hardly a day goes by that there isn't something interesting that pops up.
Yesterday, one of the posts that caught my eye was on the CNN Political Ticker. Photojournalists Derek Davis and Jung Park described their adventures traveling with Governor Huckabee on the campaign trail:
(CNN) – Amid reports that GOP presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee's campaign is running low on cash and making cutbacks, embedded CNN photojournalists Derek Davis and Jung Park filed this diary entry just days before the campaign announced it would no longer give journalists an opportunity to buy a ticket and travel with the candidate. This week, the campaign grounded its chartered press airplanes entirely.
A ton of gear, a non-stop schedule, and constant airplane travel. If you’re a CNN photojournalist like me who’s embedded with a presidential campaign, those things are part of a typical day.
Not so typical: an afternoon riding a toilet seat in a propeller plane over South Carolina.
Late last week, we were with the former Arkansas governor as he campaigned in South Carolina in his final push before the GOP primary.
As photographers for CNN, we have the opportunity to witness politics up close, literally to have a front row seat to history in the making. But, politics also means something else to people like us in the trenches: It’s physical. It’s exciting. It’s tough.
Our recent travel with Huckabee took the toughness to new heights. After covering an event where the GOP presidential candidate discussed the economy with South Carolina steel workers, we made our way to the airport and discovered that we’d be flying the rest of the day on a double-propeller, 8-seat airplane. There were a total of three of these planes – one for Huckabee and his staff, and two more for the press traveling with the campaign.
We shared our plane with a crew from CBS News. Once we’d loaded our gear (two cameras, tripods, audio equipment, tapes, boom poles, etc.) and the other crew had loaded its equipment, there wasn’t much room left for us.
I am now much closer to a CBS sound technician than I ever wanted to be – we shared a seat on the flight. But at least I had one.
My colleague Jung wasn’t so lucky. It may have been covered and padded but make no mistake about it, Jung flew all around South Carolina on a toilet. (They did a good job on camouflage: He didn’t know it was a toilet and nobody thought to tell him.) Isn’t cable news glamorous?
On Thursday's American Morning, Veronica De La Cruz did a follow up report about the student that called a school administrator complaining about not getting a snow day. And John Roberts had a thing or two to say about the student's reaction to the attention.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mystery Journalist
Ready for a little game of name that ear? Can you name this CNN journalist?
Let us know who you think it is and we'll reveal this journalist's identity in Sunday's post.
I came across an online article Mark Schwed of the Palm Beach Post recently did an article on some of the major female anchors in cable news. Included in the article were Heidi Collins, Kiran Chetry, Erica Hill, Robin Meade and Christi Paul as well as other female anchor from other cable stations. To read about all the ladies, click here. I enjoyed it but I must say I was a little disappointed that Kyra Phillips was not included.
At the end of last year I read an article about 2007 being the deadliest year for journalist. It caught my eye because I am such a huge follower of the news (You have to be when you blog). Well I came across an email about Christiane Amanpour and this very topic. The following is part of the article that was accompanying the email.
Attacks on the Press, our annual worldwide survey, will have an international release in various cities on Monday, February 4. This year’s edition includes analyses of emerging trends as reported by our program coordinators and researchers. Bob Dietz explores the myriad of press freedom issues confronting China as it gears up for the 2008 summer Olympics in Beijing. Carlos Lauría examines how government censors television in Venezuela. Joel Campagna investigates a creeping trend in the Middle East, where governments quietly manipulate press laws. Nina Ognianova explores how the Kremlin’s tactics to undermine press freedom are influencing other parts of the region. And Tom Rhodes explores the downturn of press freedom in many new African democracies.
The book features a preface from CNN’s Christiane Amanpour as well as an introduction from Joel Simon. Attacks on the Press in 2007 will be released simultaneously on our Web site, http://www.cpj.org/index.html. Copies of the book will be available through Brookings Institution, http://www.brookings.edu/. To read the entire article, click here.
CNN’s Senior Business Correspondent and co-host of Your $$$$$ (Money) is on the road in CNN’s Election Express. Ali Velshi will travel from South Carolina to California. Velshi will visit nine states and travel 2600 miles, all in six days. He will stop along the way and talk to the voters about the economy and other issues at the forefront for them. If the weather cooperates look for the CNN Express on Thursday in Abilene, TX, Friday in El Paso, TX, Saturday in Phoenix, AZ and Sunday night in Los Angeles, CA To follow along or to just send Ali a comment the adventure is posted on the CNN Ticker. In other CNN news Jack Cafferty is appearing with Sue Simmons at 92nd St. Y in NYC on Thursday night. Information about tickets can be found on the CNN Calendar.
IT’S ONLY JANUARY, BUT THE DEBATES AND PRIMARY COVERAGE IS FAST AND FURIOUS…
Yup it’s only January and we are in full swing with political coverage of caucuses, primaries and yes, more debates. We are almost to the point of two debates a week along with a caucus or primary thrown in. And, Saturdays are now in the mix. Is it good for cable news? It’s GREAT for cable news – just imagine what would be covered if politics were not in full swing (in more ways than one, including mud slinging…). The race is starting to create candidate fall-out so the debates are smaller, the candidates are being “sound-bited” to death and the accusations, real or embellished are being hurled. What will it be like in May just prior to the conventions? CNN and MSNBC have the lion’s share of the debates along with an 8PM block on CNN each night now – “Election Center,” and primary coverage when it happens. CNN is still tops at primary coverage as well.
Let’s start with the weekly averages:
8PM:^ Fox News: 608,000* CNN: 227,000** MSNBC: 348,000
The CNN average with or without the special Lou Dobbs on Tuesday came in third in the time period. The viewership landscape is changing, and even with the interest in politics, ELECTION CENTRAL will need a little while to see if it can attract viewers. This block typically comes in third to Bill O’Reilly and COUNTDOWN.
9PM:^ Fox News: 441,000* CNN: 296,000 MSNBC: 175,000***
Whatever happened on Monday for Fox News, it certainly helped each program’s average in the primetime block. HANNITY and COLMES had a very strong week. LKL had a solid week, with strong programs surprisingly on debate Tuesday and Friday evening. MSNBC without the debate average on Tuesday and its “DocBlock” on Friday remained a steady third with Dan Abrams only airing three days.
10PM:^ Fox News: 438,000**** CNN: 296,000 MSNBC: 150,000*****
Oh yeah, a lot of asterisks here with various programs being pre-empted from their regular fare on the channels. AC360 did air for five full days, and pulled a decent second finish. GRETA was on the road in the Middle East with President Bush and had a one-on-one interview with the President on Wednesday. This program helped her week average along with a very strong performance on Monday.
Program Note: MSNBC did air a Democratic debate on Tuesday night, Jan. 15, 2008 which aired from 9-11PM. They were far and away #1 for the time period along with their post debate analysis on MSNBC at 11PM. In the latest 2007/2008 debate ranking, it came in at #7. CNN with its debate this past Monday still holds the top 4 ranking cable debates, and 5 out of the top 10 in cable.
SATURDAY, Jan 19, 2008 Nevada Democratic Caucus and South Carolina Republican Primary:^ While the Nevada Caucus took place during daytime, Wolf Blitzer manned coverage in New York City. While we don’t get daytime figures, CNN was the strongest in audience delivery beginning at 5PM with its BALLOT BOWL program. CNN had a +17% advantage at 5PM with its BALLOT BOWL in comparison to Fox’s YOU DECIDE. MSNBC was just an also ran in the 5PM hour. At 6PM, audience viewership tightened up MSNBC edged Fox News and CNN from 6-6:30PM, but Fox News bounced back at 6:30-7PM to edge out MSNBC and CNN. At 7PM, ELECTION CENTER kicked in and so did the audience for CNN for the rest of the night. CNN led Fox News by comfortable margins to take the night not only in prime, but in averaging the entire block of Caucus/Primary coverage from 5PM-11PM Saturday night. MSNBC’s coverage strengthened considerably at 6PM to beat both Fox News and CNN, but that was the only hour. For the rest of the evening, CNN led all cable channels in covering the political scene.
Primary and Caucus coverage on CNN is setting the standard to be beat. But I’m still not saying “the phrase that shall not be named……”
See you next week and let me know if you have any questions. We’ll look at the age composition in the debates next week – you might find it interesting. RATINGS GURU
*4 day average; “You Decide” aired Tuesday against debate night on MSNBC. **4 day average; Lou Dobbs special aired against Tuesday debate night on MSNBC. ***3 day average; democratic debate aired Tuesday; “DocBlock” aired Friday. ****4 day average; special Hannity & Colmes aired Tuesday. *****4 day average; debate aired Tuesday. ^Courtesy, Nielsen Media Research, Adults 25-54, Live + Same Day (LS), Fast Track Nationals.
As CNN Worldwide explores innovative ways to embrace information technology and reach its global audience, the network has hired veteran television executive and producer Randi Subarsky as its new vice president of development, it was announced today by Susan Bunda, executive vice president for content development and strategy for CNN Worldwide.
For this new role at CNN, Subarsky will lead program development teams based in Atlanta and New York City with the challenge of developing news programming across multiple platforms with new technology and viewer outreach. She will also serve as the executive overseeing talent recruitment, special projects and cross-platform initiatives. Based in New York, she will report to Bunda.
Subarsky comes to CNN as a creative and experienced producer in all aspects of programming development, production and marketing with a strong track record of motivating her teams to deliver compelling content across multiple platforms.
“CNN consistently stands out as one of the most innovative brands in the news business, always looking for new and inventive ways to present the news,” Subarsky said. “This is an organization where we can maximize all the talent and experience across numerous broadcasting and digital platforms. I’m very excited to be here.”
Continuing its unprecedented expansion into international newsgathering, CNN Worldwide has appointed Reza Sayah as an international correspondent based in Pakistan, it was announced today by Parisa Khosravi, senior vice president of international newsgathering.
Sayah, an investigative reporter and anchor for WXYZ/Channel 7 in Detroit for the past six years, joins the network as Pakistan recovers from the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and eventually engages in a nationwide election for president.
“Our expansion of personnel in Pakistan is part of our ongoing plan to gather and provide more content for all of CNN, especially since Pakistan remains a very important story on the international scene,” Khosravi said. “Reza has a proven track record of solid reporting in the field and resourcefulness in getting to the critical elements of the story.”
Born in Iran, Sayah speaks English, Farsi and French and earned a bachelor’s degree in communications from Pepperdine University and a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri. In addition to WXYZ, Sayah has worked at KOMU-TV in Columbia, Mo., WTAJ-TV in Altoona, Pa., and WTVR-TV in Richmond, Va.
Erica Hill is joining CNN/U.S. as an anchor and as a correspondent to Anderson Cooper 360°, it was announced today by David Doss, executive producer of Anderson Cooper 360°.
Hill has served as an anchor at Headline News since January 2003, most recently for Prime News with Erica Hill. In addition, she provided news updates for Anderson Cooper 360° since April 2005. She joins Anderson Cooper 360° full-time on Friday, Feb. 1, and will be based in New York.
To read more about Erica's move to Anderson Cooper 360°, check out the post on All Things Anderson.
Sandra Endo is joining CNN Newsource’s Washington, D.C., bureau, it was announced today by Paul Crum, executive director of news operations, administration and affiliate services for CNN/U.S.
Endo will serve as a national correspondent and will report live from the scene of breaking news events and from the nation’s capital, providing live reports for more than 800 CNN Newsource partner stations.
Endo comes to CNN Newsource from NY1 where she served as the lead political reporter and has covered a wide array of campaigns, four national political conventions and New York City’s transit strike in 2005. Endo started at NY1 in 1998 as a video journalist and field producer and previously worked at WNBC-TV and interned at ABC News.
CNN's chief national correspondent, John King, has a way to go before marrying his co-worker and sweetheart, congressional correspondent Dana Bash. The Irish Catholic is converting to Judaism before their May wedding. "Yes, it is true," he told Page Six. "I'm studying to convert and will consider inviting you to my bar mitzvah. Mazel tov. On a more serious note, I took a class and am working with a wonderful rabbi in DC, and it has been a remarkably enriching experience."
TVNewseralso had two updates to the NY Post article:
A call from CNN updates the fact that despite the Page Six reporting, Dana Bash's father is not a rabbi, he's a producer at ABC News, and has been for some 40 years. Oy.
King emailed TVNewser this morning to talk about his "process" of conversion: "I started months ago with a class in DC and it convinced me I wanted to do it and I am learning from the experience. It was my idea. I tell Dana all the time if I can convert to Judaism she can convert to being a Red Sox fan. Both are very welcoming 'nations.'"
And finally tonight, award season is upon us and its no surprise that CNN is receiving quite a collection of nominations:
Outstanding News/ Information – (Series or Special)
“American Morning Series: MLK Papers” (CNN)
“Dr. Sonja Gupta: Saving Your Life” (CNN)
CNN's Alphonso Van Marsh will be one of the Special Honorees at The New York Association of Black Journalists (NYABJ) Annual Scholarship & Awards Dinner on Wednesday, February 13th. NYABJ recognizes the best in Print, New Media, Radio, Magazine and Television reporting of issues that affect the Black Diaspora.
Tonight CNN along with The Congressional Black Caucus Political Education and Leadership Institute held the Democratic Debate in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Wolf Blitzer moderated along with Suzanne Malveaux and Joe Johns. The debate was intense tonight and it will only get more intense as we head into Super Tuesday. Here are some photos from the debate.
The GLAAD Award Nominees were released and CNN has been nominated in the following categories
TV Journalism - News Segment
"The First Casualty" Anderson Cooper 360 (CNN)
"Gay Homeless Teens" Uncovering America (CNN)
"Gospel of Inclusion" Uncovering America (CNN)
"Sent Away to 'Change'" Good Morning America (ABC)
"Sex Change Controversy" Paula Zahn Now (CNN)
Digital Journalism – Multimedia
"The Advocate 40th Anniversary'" (Advocate.com)
"Fuera del Closet: Gay Hispanic Immigrants in Dallas" by Sergio Chapa (NewAmericaMedia.org)
"Landmark Moments in Gay Hollywood" by Mark S. Luckle (EW.com)
"Uncovering America: Fighting for Acceptance" (CNN.com)
The GLAAD Media Awards ceremonies will be held in New York on March 17, 2008 at the Marriott Marquis; in South Florida at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino on April 12; in Los Angeles on April 26 at the Kodak Theatre; and in San Francisco on May 10 at the San Francisco Marriott. GLAAD will provide details about upcoming broadcast dates in the near future.
Today TVNewser reported that Erica Hill may be leaving her show on Headline News to join Anderson Cooper 360 permanently. If we receive any confirmation, we will pass it on to all of you.
This weekend has been all about politics on CNN. Coverage of the Nevada Caucuses and the Republican South Carolina Primary started at 1PM ET on Saturday afternoon. The early coverage was anchored by Wolf Blitzer and John King live from the CNN Election Center in New York.
They had reports from Abbi Tatton, Ali Velshi, Candy Crowley, Dana Bash, Juan Carlos Lopez and Christine Romans. Bill Schneider was providing the break down of the voters from entrance and exit polls.
John King was working the telestrator and talked with the panel of analysts: Gloria Borger, Bill Bennett, Donna Brazile, and Jeffrey Toobin.
Jacqui Jeras provided the weather report for South Carolina. There were concerns that the miserable weather would keep voters from going to the polls. Jeffrey Toobin put things in perspective with this: Forgive me for displaying a north eastern bias here but it’s not exactly a blizzard in South Carolina. Its 40 degrees. It’s a little rain. There’s some snow. Go vote if you want to vote. It’s not like you need a tractor to get to the polling place. Come on! Toughen up, folks!
The best part of the afternoon coverage was getting to see an actual caucus live. There were 9 special Democrat caucuses setup on the Las Vegas Strip for shift workers. Ali Velshi was at the caucus held in one of the Caesars Palace ballrooms. They aired the entire process from the caucus goers waiting for things to get started once they were checked in, the first count for each of the candidates, the announcement of the who didn’t make the 15% threshold, and the process of doing a second and final count once all caucus goers had selected a candidate. I’ve never experienced a caucus myself and this was a fascinating process to watch. The Obama and Clinton supporters were passionately cheering for their candidates as they waited for the caucus to begin. I’ve never been to a polling place where folks brought their mega phones. The results from this particular caucus: 80 people for Clinton; 86 people for Obama. This translated into 17 county delegates for Obama and 16 county delegates for Clinton.
Saturday’s Ballot Bowl 08 coverage started at 4:30PM ET with Jessica Yellin, Dana Bash, Mary Snow, and Candy Crowley.
Coverage continued from the CNN Election Center at 6:30PM ET. My post on that broadcast can be found on All Things Anderson.
CNN’s coverage of the election results didn’t stop when the CNN Newsroom took over during the 10PM ET hour. Tony Harris spoke with Tom Komenda from a precinct in North Vegas about how they broke a tie between Clinton and Obama on Saturday. Below is the clip:
CNN reported some sad news on Sunday morning. Saturday night, Fran Lewine, who was a former AP White House correspondent and currently a producer at CNN passed away. Below are clips from the tribute that CNN did on Reliable Sources and Late Edition. She would have been 87 years old on Sunday. She had planned to celebrate her 87th birthday on Sunday at Charles Town Races in West Virginia, where friends had arranged to have a race named in her honor.
Ballot Bowl 08 continued on Sunday with John King anchoring from Florida.
Dana Bash, Jessica Yellin, Peter Hamby, and Bill Schneider provided reports from South Carolina.
John King is a fan of Fred. Now don’t go jumping to conclusions here, we’re not talking about the actor / presidential candidate. Here’s the clip from Sunday’s Ballot Bowl:
This has been quite a week for the CNN anchors and reporters. On Tuesday, Zain Verjee was struck by a teargas canister during protest marches in Nairobi, Kenya.
Here is the unedited (and uncensored; although I doubt many people will begrudge Zain the mild expletive under the circumstances, it was silenced on subsequent airings) video from Your World Today on Wednesday:
Thursday, John Roberts started the day co-hosting American Morning in Las Vegas and ended the day co-hosting Election Center in Columbia, South Carolina.
Seems like he got cold weather in both places, but at least for the latter he stayed indoors!
Meanwhile, "Man of Action" John King was having fun with ambient sound this week. Here's how it played out on The Situation Room on Thursday. Gotta love Jack Cafferty's rant on JK's behalf, too!
But it is Wolf Blitzer himself who wins the Ironman award this week -- in addition to his normal six-days-a-week shows, he also spent Saturday covering the Nevada caucuses and South Carolina primaries!
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Where in the World...?
As I mentioned, John Roberts was coast to coast to coast this week: Monday he was in NYC for American Morning and Warren, MI for Election Center; stayed in Warren for Tuesday, then headed for Las Vegas for Wednesday morning's show before finishing the week in Columbia, SC. Meanwhile, John King started the week in NYC and then went to South Carolina, where he reported from Spartanburg, Columbia, and Prosperity before returning to NY for the weekend.
Dana Bash started the week in Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids, MI before starting her own tour of South Carolina; she had stops in Tigerville, Spartanburg, Columbia, Myrtle Beach, and Charleston. Suzanne Malveaux stayed in Charleston; Candy Crowley stayed in Vegas.
Ali Velshi went to Warren, MI for Tuesday's primary, as did Sanjay Gupta. Sanjay was back in Atlanta for Wednesday's shows and then in Columbia, SC on Friday.
David Gergen was in NYC on Monday; on Tuesday Wolf Blitzer and Larry King were also there, and Wolf was back there Saturday. Gary Tuchman did the 360 Bulletin from Los Angeles on Tuesday.
Internationally, in addition to Zain Verjee being in Nairobi this week, Nic Robertson was covering the president's tour of the Middle East, reporting from Riyadh, Saudia Arabia on Monday.
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Finally, one small clip from last weekend's This Week at War. Each week, Tom Foreman shows some of the best photos from the week, and this essay was particularly touching. Not easy to watch, but well worth it:
Politics and campaigns stir up some of the most interesting and unlikely conflicts. Did you happen to catch the drama that took place this week between CNN's John King and Salon.com's Glenn Greenwald?
It all started on Saturday when Mr. Greenwald posted a critique of an interview that aired on Friday, January 11th’s The Situation Room. John King was in South Carolina and spoke with Senator John McCain.
If you’d like to read the full article, click here.
The segment that aired during the 6PM ET hour showed Mr. King asking Sen. McCain four questions. Mr. Greenwald’s criticism was that they were softball questions and showed bias in favor of the senator.
This is the clip that aired during the 6PM ET hour that is quoted in Mr. Greewald’s article.
Now, in my attempt to locate this clip, I came across a slightly different clip that ran during the 4PM ET hour:
I doubt that a day goes by that CNN (or any 24 hour news network) doesn’t get its share of criticism- particularly from online media sources. Ever so often one of those articles will draw the attention of someone at CNN- in this case, John King contacted Mr. Greenwald.
Below is the email as it was posted by Mr. Greenwald on Wednesday:
From: King, John C To: GGreenwald@salon.com Sent: Tuesday, January 15, 2008 5:40 PM Subject: excuse me?
I don't read biased uninformed drivel so I'm a little late to the game.
But a friend who understands how my business works and knows a little something about my 20 plus years in it sent me the link to your ramblings.
Since the site suggests you have law training, maybe you forgot that good lawyers to a little research before they spit out words.
Did you think to ask me or anyone who works with me whether that was the entire interview? No. (It was not; just a portion used by one of the many CNN programs.)
Did you reach out to ask the purpose of that specific interview? No.
Or how it might have fit in with other questions being asked of other candidates that day? No.
Or anything that might have put facts or context or fairness into your critique. No.
McCain, for better or worse, is a very accessible candidate. If you did a little research (there he goes with that word again) you would find I have had my share of contentious moments with him over the years.
But because of that accessibility, you don't have to go into every interview asking him about the time he cheated on his sixth grade math test.
The interview was mainly to get a couple of questions to him on his thoughts on the role of government when the economy is teetering on the edge of recession, in conjunction with similar questions being put to several of the other candidates.
The portion you cited was aired by one of our programs -- so by all means it is fair game for whatever "analysis" you care to apply to it using your right of free speech and your lack of any journalistic standards or fact checking or just plain basic curiosity.
You clearly know very little about journalism. But credibility matters. It is what allows you to cover six presidential campaigns and be viewed as fair and respectful, while perhaps a little cranky, but Democrats and Republicans alike. When I am writing something that calls someone's credibility into question, I pick up the phone and give them a chance to give their side, or perspective.
That way, even on days that I don't consider my best, or anywhere close, I can look myself in the mirror and know I tried to be fair and didn't call into question someone's credibility just for sport, or because I like seeing my name on a website or my face on TV.
This response didn’t sway Mr. Greenwald from his original opinion. It actually ended up reinforcing it as the rest of the article goes on to explain.
All this raises two questions for me: Was the interview biased? How would you respond to someone questioning your motives, professionally?
First, I am biased... I’m a fan of CNN; I’m a fan of John King’s; and I have absolutely no intention of voting for Senator McCain anytime in the foreseeable future. I don’t really have an opinion of Mr. Greenwald.
Other than the political commentators, like James Carville, and the outspoken Lou Dobbs, I couldn’t tell you the personal political beliefs of any of the journalists that have been covering the presidential race. The interview clip in question doesn’t sway me towards Senator McCain nor did it scream out to me that Mr. King had joined the McCain campaign. Personally, I prefer watching interviews where the person asking the questions isn’t being antagonistic for no reason even if I am rolling my eyes at the answers that are being given. (I've done a lot of eye rolling over the past year.)
Unbiased coverage doesn’t mean that all the candidates get the same amount of attention, either. There’s a limited amount of air time and viewers have a limited attention span. Mainstream media tends to spend more time talking to those candidates that are polling well at that particular moment. You don’t see too many interviews with Alan Keyes. (For anyone who might not realize it- yes, he’s running for president, again.)
Email and the internet are wonderful things. Send a response on Tuesday and read about it on Wednesday. Any time a person's professional integrity has been questioned, you can expect a heated response. At least Mr. King's response is rational and brings up some valid points.
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Mystery Journalist
Time for something that doesn't involve politics.
Can you name this CNN journalist?
Think you know who it is? Let us know in the comments.
As the nation honors the 79th birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., on Monday, Jan. 21, CNN delves deep into race and politics as it broadcasts the latest Democratic presidential primary debate from Myrtle Beach, S.C., and a live Anderson Cooper 360º special about the influence of race upon politics in America.From 8 p.m. to 10 p.m, CNN will host the two-hour debate with the Congressional Black Caucus Institute, live from the Palace Theater. CNN's lead political anchor Wolf Blitzer will serve as moderator for the debate, and CNN correspondents Joe Johns and Suzanne Malveaux will serve as panelists questioning the candidates.
Following the debate, Anderson Cooper hosts a special post-debate edition of Anderson Cooper 360º from 10 p.m. to 11 p.m., which will provide analysis and insight from members of the Best Political Team on Television.At 11 p.m., CNN will present a live, one-hour "Race & Politics: America Votes 2008" special on Anderson Cooper 360º. Anchors Cooper and Soledad O'Brien guide viewers through some of the issues related to race that may impact how America votes. O'Brien will focus on black evangelical Christians and GOP efforts to attract these traditional Democratic voters, while Cooper will moderate a panel of guests, including Amy Holmes and Roland Martin, who will discuss the most pressing political topics related to race in the current presidential campaign.
To read the entire line up of CNN programming on MLK, click here.
CNN correspondent Christiane Amanpour will host a benefit performance tonight for Keen Company, an off-Broadway theater group presenting a new drama about one of her most distinguished predecessors, reporter Martha Gellhorn.
The Maddening Truth'' runs through Feb. 17 at the Harold Clurman Theatre, 410 W. 42nd St, Manhattan. For more information, click here.
I came across a wonderful review of a speech Gary Tuchman gave to the journalism students of Sam Huston State University in 2003. I believe excerpts may have been printed at ATC before but I don't ever recall reading the hilarious story that Tuchman told about a press conference he covered in the mid 1990's.
" One of the things we do is we have big news conferences where we go live and introduce the news conference. Sometimes we have to 'tap dance', which is talking until the conference starts," Tuchman said. "Ten years ago Fidel Castro's daughter defected to the United States, and she settled in Columbus, Ga. She was having a news conference there, with the news conference starting at noon sharp. "I got there and they tell me, 'OK, Gary, you're going to give a live report at 12 noon, and if the news conference has already started we're just going to go right to the news conference live from CNN, and if not, tap dance until it starts'," he said. Thirty seconds before the conference was scheduled to begin he began introducing her, expecting her to come out. When she didn't, he began giving general information about the daughter and why she left Cuba. "Now it's like seven minutes (of 'tap dancing')," he said. "The anchor says, 'Gary, keep going because we're afraid that if you toss it back to me and we go to commercial the news cast will start and we'll miss it, and this is a big story." So he gave more general information about Castro and Cuba. "I'm talking and talking, and the thing's not starting. Now it's 20 minutes, and I'm running out of things to say," he said. "Finally, we give up, and I throw back to the anchor; we go a commercial. And sure enough, the second the commercial starts, she comes out, they start the press conference, and we miss the beginning of it. I was really upset. "After the news conference is over, I asked her, 'How come you didn't start it like you told me? It created a hardship for us'," Tuchman said. "She (Castro's daughter) goes, 'Oh, Gary, we were in the back of the room watching CNN, and we didn't want to interrupt you. So when you went to a commercial, we came out.' We learned a lesson from that. We now tell people to start the press conference whenever they're ready."
A BUSY WEEK FOR CABLE NEWS CNN IS STILL ON TOP FOR CABLE DEBATES AND PRIMARY COVERAGE
With this political season, regular programming on the cable news channels and the importance of it is beginning to be lost on all of the special programming starting to invade the primetime schedules. It is raising all cable audiences, but last week, CNN had quite a bit of good news. We’ll look at the Tuesday (Jan. 8) primary coverage as well as the regular week’s programming. Fox News did well with their Republican Debate Thursday (Jan. 10) but ranks as the 5th most popular debate for the debate season which started April, 2007. CNN is still the top ranking cable channel with its YOUTUBE debate from Nov. 28, 2007 (ranked 3rd) and a Democratic debate Nov. 15, 2007 (ranked 4th). Only ABC, a broadcast network, has higher debate audiences with its combination Democratic/Republican debate held Jan. 5, 2008 which CNN rebroadcast.
We’ll first get into last week, then the Primary coverage and finally a brief look at 60 MINUTES. 8PM: Fox News: 580,000* CNN: 307,000** MSNBC: 363,000*
All these audience figures do not include the debate which aired on Fox News Thursday or the Primary coverage airing on Tuesday. So you’re going to see a lot of asterisks to qualify the week’s regular programming. As usual, Bill O’Reilly took the time period – but let’s keep in mind, his 55+ audience FAR outweighs what he even does in the Adults 25-54 key demographic which is what we show. This will be the last week of the respectable showing OUT IN THE OPEN had with its 8PM substitute anchor, Rick Sanchez. COUNTDOWN had a very strong week with audiences up over around 100,000 from previous holiday influenced weeks.
9PM: Fox News: 469,000*** CNN: 323,000* MSNBC: 175,000+
Many pre-emptions this week as the debate and the extensive primary coverage kicked in, in a big way with this hour. HANNITY & COMLES only aired three times this week, so it is a very large bounce back for them from the holidays. LKL’s numbers were also up from low performances from the last couple of weeks, but not enough to beat Fox. Dan Abrams only aired three days with minimal impact in the time period.
10PM: Fox News: 453,000*** CNN: 376,000++ MSNBC: 231,000#
Now here’s where it can get interesting. On primary night (Tuesday) AC360 was coded as an AC360, but in fact it was primary coverage. I eliminated the evening from the regular programming average because all anchors along with contributors were present and it was no different than the rest of the night’s election coverage. In fact, CNN stayed live until 1AM EST as did MSNBC. So if I put the primary coverage audience back in, AC360 beats GRETA – 598,000 to GRETA’s 453,000. I’ll let you decide on that call. MSNBC “docblock” performed average numbers in this time period, excluding the primary coverage and the special edition of COUNTDOWN they aired on Wednesday with day after, primary analysis.
Just a side note – Fox News did air a Republican Debate Thursday, Jan. 10, 2008. It came in ranking 5th of all debates since April, 2007 and affected regular program performance on CNN and MSNBC.
NEW HAMPSHIRE PRIMARY COVERAGE, TUESDAY, Jan. 8,2007: Primetime 8P-11PM; Adults 25-54 and Total Audience 2+: ^ Fox News: 901,000 3,068,000 CNN: 1,358,00 3,298,000 MSNBC: 701,000 ` 1,441,000
Yes, CNN took primetime by excellent margins this night. CNN outdelivered Fox News’s Adults 25-54 audience by 51% and MSNBC’s by 94%. In Total Audience 2+, CNN beat Fox News by +7% and beat MSNBC by +17%. Well done, but I’m not saying the phrase that “shall not be named”….we’ve heard it enough, and it’s only January.
CNN was live until 1AM and also soundly beat FOX News in re-run at 11PM and 12MD in both audiences and also beat MSNBC at 11PM and 12MD even though they were live – also by substantial amount of viewers.
CNN also had the strongest audience delivery in other demographics 8PM – 1AM for Adults 18-34 and Adults 18-49. These are not demographics which are news programming strength, so to be posting strong performances with these ages shows the interest and appeal of the night.
*4 night program average; excludes Tuesday Primary audience. **4 night time period average; excludes Tuesday Primary audience. ***3 night program average; excludes Tuesday Primary and Thursday Debate audience. + 3 night program average; excludes Tuesday Primary; does not air (DNA) Fridays. ++ 4 night program average; excludes Tuesday Primary. #3 night program average; excludes Tuesday Primary and special COUNTDOWN on Wednesday. ^Courtesy, Nielsen Media Research; Adults 25-54 and Total Audience 2+, Live + Same Day (LS), Fast Track Nationals.
CNN's reputation for international news-gathering reflects the network's commitment to keeping bureaus open and staffed at a time when nearly everyone else is cutting them
and relying solely on local stringers or newsfeeds. (The online commitment is also visible, with not only a separate International edition of the CNN.com home page, but also World versions available in Arabic, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, and Turkish languages.) The commitment has been especially strong in the Middle East, and for good reason!
A vital part of staffing those bureaus, though, is finding journalists who are not only good at their jobs, but are willing to put themselves at risk -- in this fast-changing world, that may mean war, terrorist attacks, governmental crackdowns, and any number of other situations. Here's a look at a couple current hotspots:
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You may have heard about the Saudi blogger who was arrested early last month and has been held without charges ever since. Fouad Alfarhan was one of the first bloggers in that country to publish under his own name, something he encouraged others to do. His apparent "crime" was calling for reforms and an end to human rights violations, things that we take for granted in the United States.
This morning on Your World Today, Hala Gorani and Nic Robertson (both in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia to cover President Bush's visit) gave an update to Fouad's status:
I don't know about you, but the thought of someone being "interrogated" in a Saudi prison gives me chills. For the first four weeks of his captivity, he was not allowed any visitors; however, recently his father-in-law was allowed to visit him for one hour. The family has declined to talk to the media about his situation and condition.
If you would like more information, or to sign an online petition or get the code to post the Free Fouad blog notice, visit the Free Fouad website. You can also read his original website (being maintained by friends in his absence) here.
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Peter Bergen at Afghan-Pakistan border, 2003
photo credit: Scott Wallace
In the wake of Benazir Bhutto's assassination in Pakistan last month, we saw several CNN reporters and analysts go to Pakistan to monitor the situation. Peter Bergen, CNN's terrorism analyst, returned last week and spoke yesterday at an event at the New America Foundation (the think-tank Peter is affiliated with) in Washington DC. Also there was Nicholas Schmidle, a writer who has been living in Pakistan for the past two years, but whose recent NYT article got him a one-way ticket home from the Pakistani government.
Hello everyone. I hope you had a good week. Hey! Do you read CNN's Political Ticker? For a political junkie like myself, it's exciting to read posts from the frontlines! One post in particular caught my eye last week. Wolf Blitzer asked readers to submit questions they would like to ask the Democratic candidates at next week's debate in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Well, readers did not disappoint! Right now, the comment tally stands at 2197. Not a bad haul.
A stunned Wolf blogged today to thank readers for their wonderful response. Here is an excerpt:
I have always had high confidence in our CNN viewers. I know you are smart because you wouldn’t be watching The Situation Room and all of our other CNN political coverage if you weren’t. There are simply too many other options available to all of you — ranging from sitcoms, to sports, to silly talk shows. Our viewers are intelligent and that certainly came through with your comments. You can take a look at them yourself. If you take the time, you too will be impressed.
Let me assure you that our team is going through all of these suggested questions, and we will select some of them for the debate. We will also use your ideas to formulate some other questions. You’ve raised serious issues and Suzanne Malveaux, Joe Johns and I are taking them very seriously. This has been a great opportunity for us to know what is on your minds, and we are grateful to you for the help.
Throughout my journalistic career, I have always cherished the fact that I am blessed with a front-row seat to history. I have the opportunity and privilege to ask important newsmakers tough and important questions. In the process, I see myself as our viewers’ representative. You might not have that chance, but I do — and I take it very seriously.
I envy Wolf's "front-row seat to history" and I'm glad that he takes his responsibility to be the voice of the readers and viewers very seriously. That Wolf is one classy man!
If you haven't gotten a chance to read some of the submissions, hop on over to Wolf's post. There is still time to submit your suggestions! All you have to do is close your eyes, click your heals together and click here! You'll be in Political Oz in no time! ;)
If you are not an early riser but miss John Roberts, you are in luck! Mr. Roberts will be anchoring a daily political update at 8pm ET. CNN issued a press release regarding their new programming.
CNN Launches Nightly Election Center Co-Anchored from Campaign Trail
Best Political Team to Provide Round-Up of Campaign News for 8 p.m. Hour
CNN starting today will dedicate the 8 p.m. hour each weekday to the latest election news coverage from the campaign trail in a new program, CNN Election Center. Building on CNN’s successes and ratings wins from both the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primaries, CNN Election Center will be anchored by members of the “Best Political Team on Television” from the New York-based CNN Election Center and on the trail by CNN anchor John Roberts. The program combines CNN’s unrivaled field reporting and analysis with all of the technology that CNN demonstrated on recent primary election nights. Each evening, CNN will report on substantive issues of concern to the American people with policy-oriented questions that will go beyond the minutia of the horse race and Beltway conventions.
For CNN Election Center, Roberts will anchor live from the field as candidates circulate through Michigan, Nevada, South Carolina, Florida and California as the Super Tuesday primaries approach. In New York, a rotating slate of anchors, including Wolf Blitzer, Anderson Cooper, Lou Dobbs, John King and Soledad O’Brien, will anchor from the CNN Election Center. Cooper and Roberts will co-anchor the program’s debut edition.
“CNN will offer the electricity of Election Night every night at 8,” said Jon Klein, president of CNN/U.S. “The Best Political Team on Television will provide unmatched insight and inside information and will give viewers what they want the most: less horse race coverage and more of the candidates talking about what they would do as president.”
CNN Election Center will air each weekday from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. through the week of Super Tuesday. All times Eastern. The program also serves as a television companion to CNN.com’s Election Center available at http://www.CNN.com/ELECTION/
Joining the program from the trail will be CNN’s Emmy Award-winning political team with Dana Bash, John King and Mary Snow covering the Republican candidates, and Candy Crowley, Suzanne Malveaux and Jessica Yellin reporting on the Democrats. Also out on the campaign trail will be CNN correspondents Jim Acosta, Tom Foreman, Joe Johns, Chris Lawrence and Dan Lothian. Gloria Borger; senior political analyst; Jack Cafferty, commentator; David Gergen, senior political analyst; Bill Schneider, senior political analyst; and Jeff Toobin, legal analyst; will also contribute to the program along with CNN’s nationally known contributors Bill Bennett, Carl Bernstein, Donna Brazile and Roland Martin.
Jeff Kepnes serves as executive producer for CNN Election Center.
Through 2007 and continuing this year, CNN’s election programming has resonated with viewers who have made the network and CNN.com their source for politics. Two of CNN’s primary debates – the CNN/YouTube Republican debate and the Democratic debate in Las Vegas – stand as the two highest-rated primary debates in cable news history. CNN’s coverage of the Iowa caucuses topped the competition in the youngest demographics, while its New Hampshire primary coverage won across all demographics including total viewers. Click here to read the full release including programming notes for a special Lou Dobbs Primetime special, “Independents Day: Awakening the American Spirit," airing from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Well, that's all for me today. Have a great week and I'll see you after the debate next week! ~Sheryn
This weekend on CNN News Room, Becky Anderson spoke with Chris Rock in London. Chris spoke about the upcoming US election, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton as well as the one person who is off limits to him in his comedy act (which is too bad because there is just so much he could use with Oprah).
To read the entire interview, click here (scroll towards the bottom)
Ballot Bowl '08 continued this weekend with Jim Acosta and Mary Snow leading the way. Jim was in Nevada, Mary was in Michigan, Susan Candiotti was in Florida.
Jim Acosta & Mary Snow
Susan Candiotti
This upcoming Tuesday night Lou Dobbs will be having a special called Independence Day: Awakening the American Spirit". The show will air at 8PM EST.
Tonight Larry King Live aired special coverage of the Golden Globe Awards. CNN's Brooke Anderson was one of the presenters.
Larry had a panel including A.J. Hammer, Kareen Wynter, Debbie Matenopoulos, Melissa Rivers, Brooke Anderson, Danya Devlin.
Remember back to the days when communication from viewers to anchors/reporters meant typing out an actual letter, mailing it to the network and then waiting for it to crawl through the system? Those days are long gone, and while we haven't advanced to precisely instant communication, we certainly do have dialogue.
CNN has stayed at the forefront of the new technology by encouraging viewer participation through the incredible iReport system, which they have been utilizing for just over a year now. With seemingly everyone carrying camera phones these days, setting up an easy system for people to send in photos and videos has opened up so many stories to first-hand views that were never before possible.
Additionally, CNN has a wide array of blogs and obviously encourage their reporters and staff to communicate with us through them. With many of them, we also get a fantastic behind-the-scenes view of what is happening. If you haven't yet checked them out, here are some links to a few of the most popular ones:
Of course, most people know about the AC360 blog. It has been truly ramped up of late, with the "Morning Buzz" post that highlights stories they are working on. Many of the regular contributors post info on breaking stories, while the producers and other staff give us a glimpse of what we don't see onscreen.
The Situation Room does not have a show blog, but they utilize The Political Ticker for the latest campaign news. Also, CNN's resident curmudgeon and voice of reason Jack Cafferty has his own blog for when you just have to weigh in on the insanities of the day.
To keep up with what is happening in the Middle East, check out the companion blog to CNN International anchor Hala Gorani's show, Inside the Middle East.
And for a behind-the-scenes look at reporters all over the globe, you want to bookmark the In The Field blog. I love this one because it lets the reporters talk about all the interesting things they go through when working on a story. They make it look so easy, but it almost never is!
There are many more blogs to investigate on the main CNN Blog page, and of course all the blogs have RSS notification capability. If you want to stay in the know, CNN is making it easier than ever.
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While we're talking about communication, I have a mini-rant to get off my chest...
I love the crawl, I really do. But there is one thing I wish they would stop doing -- when something happens to a person, they post it in this order: Name, bio material that takes about a minute to crawl across the screen, what happened.
I can't tell you how many times I have just held my breath waiting to find out what happened to someone... especially since all too often what happened is that they died! But it might be that they had a child, got married, slipped and broke their arm, got an award, etc.
Please, CNN Powers-That-Be, can't you place the EVENT info before the bio info? Don't leave us hanging, it's bad for our hearts!
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Where in the World...?
Another big political week on CNN saw most of the "usual suspects" heading for New Hampshire to cover the Tuesday primary. Late Edition had input from Suzanne Malveaux in Nashua, John King in Portsmouth, and Dana Bash in Salem. John and Dana later headed for Manchester to host and give commentary for the re-airing of the ABC debate. Monday, John Roberts and Kiran Chetry hosted American Morning from Concord, joined by Candy Crowley.
Also on Monday, Zain Verjee began a week of reporting from Nairobi, Kenya; Susan Roesgen was in Fernley, Nevada to report on the massive flooding there following a levee break, and Dr. Sanjay Gupta appeared on Larry King Live from Sarasota, Florida.
Tuesday, John King was part of The Situation Room's coverage of the primary; TSR aired out of the special election HQ in NY, and the coverage of the voting went on throughout the evening, as we saw for Iowa. Elsewhere, Nic Robinson (above) reported from London for Your World Today.
On Wednesday, American Morning started an hour early, with the hosts back in the New York studio. Back on the campaign trail, John King went to Grand Rapids, Michigan; Dana Bash to Greenville, South Carolina; and Suzanne Malveaux to Jersey City, New Jersey.
Thursday, John King and Dana Bash were in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina for the Republican debate and remained there through Friday. Randi Kaye spent those days investigating the missing/murdered Marine at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. And Arwa Damon (below) is back in the Baghdad bureau, where unusually cold weather saw an extremely rare snowfall in that city. (Go ahead and say it: hell froze over this week...)
That's it for me today, enjoy the rest of your weekend! CNN is presenting another Ballot Bowl this weekend, if you want to hear any of the candidates as they work for more support.
From the CNN Press Room: CNN’s This Week at War takes a more political bent for the Saturday, Jan. 12, edition as it expands its focus to scrutinize how the 2008 presidential candidates plan to deal with the war in Iraq and other issues involving the military and conflicts abroad should they make it to the Oval Office. The program will air from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. (ET). Hosted by CNN’s Tom Foreman, the program also will include a look ahead to the Michigan primary and how the voters and veterans in that state feel about the war in Iraq. Panelists will discuss whether U.S. troops serving overseas have become political casualties of the 2008 election season. Other topics of discussion are the politics of oil in the struggle for international peace and the political fallout of President George W. Bush’s trip to the Middle East. Among the guests on the program are Chris Christoff, bureau chief for the Detroit Free Press; Joseph Cirincione, director of nuclear policy at the Center for American Progress; Noah Feldman, Harvard University professor and senior adjunct fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations; Brig. Gen. David Grange, U.S. Army (Ret.) and CNN military analyst; Ken Pollack, director of research at the Brookings Institution; Bill Schneider, CNN senior political analyst; Barbara Starr, CNN Pentagon correspondent; Shibley Telhami, University of Maryland professor and Middle East analyst; Jim VandeHei, executive editor of The Politico; Alphonso Van Marsh, CNN international correspondent; and Ben Wedeman, CNN international correspondent. CNN’s This Week at War airs Saturdays from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. and Sundays from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. (ET). The Sunday, Jan. 13, edition of the program will be pre-empted for CNN’s “Ballot Bowl” coverage. “Ballot Bowl” is long-form, uninterrupted coverage of Democratic and Republican candidates’ significant live and recent events, offering viewers around the country a chance to see a complete political campaign event first-hand. ☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺ If you missed the return of Jon Stewart this week you missed some good laughs at CNN's expense.
Here's Lou Dobbs visiting with Jon on Thursday night. Thanks to JWest for the links.
CNN Adds Emmy to List of Awards for Digital Newsgathering Innovations TV Academy Recognizes CNN’s Portable System as Industry Standard for Field Reporting
CNN’s digital newsgathering operations garnered its third prestigious honor for innovation in recent months during the 59th Annual Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards dinner on Monday, Jan. 7, for developing an unrivaled portable kit that enables journalists to report, edit and produce news packages from nearly anywhere on the globe. The National Academy of Television and Arts and Sciences presented the award at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas .
David Sheehan Joins CNN as VP for Content Licensing, Sales
David Sheehan has joined the CNN News Services executive team as vice president for CNN content licensing and sales, it was announced today by Susan Grant, executive vice president of CNN News Services. In his new role, Sheehan oversees CNN ImageSource, CNN Worldwide’s content and stock footage licensing business.
“David’s vast understanding of the video licensing market provides focus to CNN ImageSource,” Grant said. “In particular, his experience and knowledge put us in a position to anticipate the needs of the full range of broadcast, corporate and commercial clients.”
Sheehan comes to CNN from ABC News VideoSource where, under his direction, the network saw record sales of ABC News’ stock footage. He also established key partnerships with a range of content partners. Sheehan joined ABC News VideoSource in 1995. He serves as co-president of the Association of Commercial Stock Image Licensors, a nonprofit association dedicated to promoting and advancing the professional interests of the stock footage industry. Sheehan earned his bachelor’s degree in history from Kenyon College.
It's funny how things just fall into my lap at the most opportune time. I hadn't a clue what I was going to blog about today when I got an email from a friend saying Kathy Griffin was on Jimmy Kimmel. I set the recorder because I knew Kathy would be talking about her NYE appearance on CNN with Anderson Cooper. I got a pleasant surprise when I reviewed my recording on Tuesday morning. Not only had Kathy talked about AC (see my post at ATA yesterday) but Jimmy aired a piece done at with CNN at the 2004 Presidential debates in Tempe, AZ. It seems that Jimmy's dad is a dead ringer for Wolf Blitzer. So with camera crew in tow in proceeded to interview everyday people, celebs and Wolf himself. Enjoy! ~ Phebe
THE DEBATES ARE BRINGING OUT THE PUNDITS AND THE SPIN
Anderson Cooper, NYC, Courtesy Google Images
What a week! I think Anderson Cooper’s expression says it all…A New Year’s Eve celebration broadcast on Fox News and CNN, a Caucus on Thursday, a Republican/Democratic debate on Saturday on a broadcast network that wound up as a rebroadcast on CNN Sunday night. Finally, another Republican debate on Sunday night on Fox News that ran up against the rebroadcast ABC Republican/Democratic debate on CNN. Got all that???
There isn’t much to look at with the week as we must eliminate Thursday election coverage from normal program audience delivery. We’ll then look at Caucus Thursday and a little on the weekend coverage and tiny recap on New Year’s Eve.
8PM: ^ Fox News: 432,000* CNN: 250,000** MSNBC: 338,000**
With all those asterisks* what is really important? Nothing really. Reruns of O’Reilly, OUT IN THE OPEN aired once and MSNBC’s “Docbloc” that dominated the channel all week performed very well.
9PM: ^ Fox News: 284,000* CNN: 260,000* MSNBC: 153,000**
Monday and Tuesday were weak for HANNITY & COLMES with reruns grew well with them back in action Wednesday and performed extremely well on Friday to pull them up to first position for the week at 9PM. LKL had a dismal Monday and Tuesday, but bounded back on Wednesday and Friday to claim a strong 2nd finish for the time period. Once again, with DAN ABRAMS only airing one day, there wasn’t much to say.
10PM: ^ Fox News: 223,000* CNN: 261,000* MSNBC: 287,000*
CAUCUS NIGHT 8-12MD: ^+ Fox News Adults 25-54: 806,000 CNN Adults 25-54: 923,000 MSNBC Adults 25-54: 587,000
Fox News Total Audience 2+: 2.248 million CNN Total Audience 2+: 2.205 million MSNBC Total Audience 2+: 1.252 million
The good news? CNN won in the key advertiser demographic of Adults 25-54 for its 8PM-12MD Iowa Caucus coverage – a time period accepted by the industry for the night’s measurement (it is different than regular primetime of 8P-11P). CNN also nearly beat Fox News in Total Audience 2+ - which is amazing as Fox News being so heavily with 50+ viewers normally has a commanding lead over all other networks regardless of time period. The other good news – from 10PM – 12MD, CNN did win Total Audience 2+ - clearly indicating viewer interest for wrap up and final results.
CNN Promotion; ABC New Hampshire Debate Rebroadcast; Courtesy, All Things CNN; CNN.
SUNDAY FOX NEWS FORUM VERSUS CNN REBROADCAST of the ABC Democratic/Republican Debate:
Fox News Forum 8PM – 9:33PM, Adults 25-54: 767,000 CNN Democratic/Republican Debate Rebroadcast, 7PM-11:38PM, Adults 25-54: 367,500
Now keep in mind, Fox News aired 8PM-9:33PM. CNN aired 7PM-11:38PM. ABC had over 8 million viewers for the Saturday first run of the debate, and CNN was up against network airings of football and an extremely strong 60 MINUTES. It also extended outside of primetime to 11:38PM, and Homes Using Television (HUTS) greatly decrease at 11PM. STILL, this performance by CNN far exceeds what is normally run in the time periods on Sunday evening, so a good call to rebroadcast the debate – a 53% increase in audience with the debate versus CNN Sundays, 2007 year-to-date.
New Year’s Eve, Dec. 31, 2007 CNN Staff and Anderson Cooper; Courtesy CNN
NEW YEAR’S EVE BROADCASTS: Fox News, 11P-1AM, Adults 25-54: 355,000 CNN, 11P-1AM, Adults 25-54: 410,000
CNN beat Fox News with its strength in audience delivery in the 11PM-12MD hour. It did not beat Fox News in Total Audience 2+ for the 2 hour block (really 90 minutes for both channels) but did in the 11PM -12MD hour.
A very competitive and good performance for CNN for the week in multiple areas. Let me know if you have any questions, and I’ll see you next week! RATINGS GURU
What's the secret to success at CNN? Other than being on good terms with Jon Klein...well, it could quite possibly be working on ABC News' World News Now broadcast. Never heard of it? Well, you must have never found yourself channel flipping in the middle of the night. ABC's World News Now is their overnight news program- but it's nothing like World News with Charlie Gibson.
World News Now is celebrating their 16th birthday this week and they've been showing clips and interviews with former anchors and producers. Monday morning's broadcast included an interview with former CNN anchor Aaron Brown. Did you know that Aaron Brown was one of the first anchors of the overnight broadcast?
He's not the only person who found their way from ABC to CNN. CNN Washington Bureau Chief, David Bohrman once produced World News Now. He was on the set Monday discussing his time on the program.
Did you see another familiar CNN face in that clip? Anderson Cooper also anchored the World News Now broadcast at one time.
While we're on the topic of ABC news, did you wonder why CNN rebroadcast an ABC debate? President of CNN/U.S, Jon Klein, explained the decision on Howard Kurtz' Reliable Sources on Sunday.
I just couldn't stay away from politics completely. I tried. Anyway, three video clips and I'm done for the night. Have a good week.
Hi everyone! The CNN Express showed up in New Hampshire for the first Primary of the season. Here is CNN's coverage plans for the evening (click here for full text):
CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, Best Political Team on Television Lead New Hampshire Coverage
New Election Center with State-of-the-Art Technology, CNN Election Express on Display on Jan. 8
CNN will employ its extensive resources and political expertise for incisive and expansive coverage of New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation primary on Tuesday, Jan. 8. From the new CNN Election Center in New York and from around the state of New Hampshire, lead political anchor Wolf Blitzer and CNN’s political team will guide the network’s special coverage.
CNN’s special programming will begin at 8 p.m. (ET)—following wall-to-wall politics on The Situation Room and Lou Dobbs Tonight—and run late into the night. The coverage will lead into a special edition of Larry King Live at midnight (ET) hosted by Larry King and featuring analysis and insight into the election results.
The CNN Election Center is the network’s new political nerve center located in CNN’s broadcast headquarters in New York. CNN’s team of statisticians and political analysts will pore over data and polling information to bring viewers the most accurate results as results come in. CNN’s new technology such as the “multi-touch” and enhanced graphics capabilities has led to a whole new way to visualize these races and combined with the network’s unsurpassed reporting and analysis made CNN the most-watched cable news network in all the key demos the night of the Iowa caucuses.
In addition, CNN will offer up-to-the minute reporting and analysis at CNNPolitics.com and on the CNN Political Ticker at www.CNN.com/ticker. CNN.com Live will have extended coverage of the results, with CNN.com’s Melissa Long anchoring coverage from the CNN Election Center in New York and CNN.com’s Nicole Lapin anchoring from Atlanta.
CNN Radio will provide live anchored coverage with Lisa Desjardins anchoring from New Hampshire. CNN Newsource will provide its affiliates access to on-site reports from correspondent Sean Callebs and Newsource RunningMate exclusive correspondent, Samantha Hayes.
Each month in 2008, CNN Student News will be “Talking Democracy” by introducing an election-year topic in the show and online. From caucus to convention and primary to poll, CNN Student News will break down these election-year concepts. Teachers, parents and students can find the CNN Student News program and its curriculum materials online at http://www.cnnstudentnews.com/ and on Headline News from Monday through Friday at 4 a.m. (ET)
It's been the weekend for the political junkies on CNN. Ballot Bowl 2008 - Round 2 - this time Live from New Hampshire.
Saturday, John King anchored 4 hours of live programming that featured clips of the candidates (live at times) campaigning in New Hampshire. What could be more picturesque than snow covered New Hampshire in January?
CNN had correspondents reporting from across the state including Mary Snow, Suzanne Malveaux, Jessica Yellin, Bill Schneider, Dana Bash and Dan Lothian.
I happen to live in one of those small states that the candidates rarely visit. So, getting to hear more than just a 15 second sound bite from their campaign speeches appeals to me.
Sunday, John King was back again to anchor another 4 hours from New Hampshire. There were more campaign stops for the CNN correspondents to cover as the clock counts down to Tuesday's primary.
Mary Snow
Suzanne Malveaux
Dana Bash
Dan Lothian
Jessica Yellin
Bill Schneider
If you turned into CNN between 7:00pm ET and 11:30pm ET Sunday night, you might have wondered if you're cable company had rearranged their channels. CNN rebroadcast the debates that had aired on ABC on Saturday night.
Charlie Gibson moderated the ABC Facebook WMUR debates. Unlike previous debates, this one offered the candidates the opportunity to discuss the topics between themselves, not just answer the questions posed by the moderator. One other unique feature of this debate was that both Republicans and Democrats were debating on the same stage, the same night. Between the two debates as the Republican candidates were leaving the stage and the Democrats where entering, Charlie Gibson asked all the candidates to remain on stage and greet one another. It was an interesting moment seeing all 10 candidates being "nice" to one another.
John King anchored CNN's coverage, but the debates aired unedited.
At the conclusion of the debate, John King was joined by Dana Bash and Jessica Yellin to analyze the ABC debates as well as the debate that had aired on Fox News during the same time slot.
Mystery Journalist
This week's Mystery Journalist was Ted Rowlands.
One last note tonight, MediaBistro's FishbowlDC reported on Friday that John King and Dana Bash were engaged. We haven't gotten any official confirmation of this, but we did notice that Dana Bash was wearing a ring on Sunday.
Those of at All Things CNN would like to offer the couple our congratulations and best wishes on this exciting news.
In case you were watching the football game last night instead of the ABC Facebook WMUR debates, CNN will be rebroadcasting the debates tonight, SUNDAY, JANUARY 6th at 7pm ET.
The original airing of the debate followed the schedule listed below:
7:00-8:30pm ET - Republicans
8:45-10:15pm ET -Democrats
ABC "World News" anchor Charlie Gibson moderated the debate from Saint Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire.
Of course, CNN's Best Political Team on TV will be offering analysis on how the candidates performed.
Photo: ABC News
The participants for the Republican debate were: Rudy Giuliani, Mike Huckabee, John McCain, Ron Paul, Mitt Romney, and Fred Thompson
Photo: ABC News
The participants for the Democrat debate were: Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Barack Obama, and Bill Richardson
This week was all about Iowa, which has been well-covered here, but I wanted to point out one tech item that was quite fun...
Here is Tom Foreman working it old-school as he tries to explain how the Democratic caucuses work in Iowa...
And here is Jeffrey Toobin showing off the new Magic Board: they start with all the candidates listed at the top and 100 question marks representing the caucus-goers...
...then, after using the touch-screen technology to slide the 'people' into one camp or another, which automatically changed the question marks to that candidate's logo. At the same time, the percentages are being calculated so that their viability can be ascertained.
Wolf and Jack, together again! On Wednesday, while Wolf was in NYC Jack joined him on the set during 'The Situation Room' for The Cafferty File.
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Where in the World...?
Hard to believe that Monday was New Year's Eve, it already seems like ages ago! But on that day, Zain Verjee and senior business correspondent Ali Velshi (above) were in Islamabad, Pakistan, reporting on the still-echoing ramifications of Benazir Bhutto's assassination. (No one has yet figured out why Ali went; he reported on the assassination itself, not any kind of financial issues. Perhaps he simply volunteered for it -- at any rate, he did great work over there.)
Also, Miles O'Brien was on the Newsroom set in Atlanta for a segment on Monday, while Dana Bash and Suzanne Malveaux were preparing for things in Des Moines.
By Wednesday, it seemed like the CNN folks were fairly evenly divided between New York and Iowa. John Roberts was in Iowa City, while Candy Crowley and Tom Foreman were in Des Moines; Wolf Blitzer hosted 'The Sit Room' from NYC, Ali Velshi was back in NYC, and Soledad O'Brien and Anderson Cooper were there in the spiffy Election Center as well. Meanwhile, Fredericka Whitfield and Rob Marciano were holding down the Newsroom fort in Atlanta.
The Thursday caucus saw all the great technology put to use, and with Election Center nearly full to bursting with reporters, anchors, and pundits it was a well-spent evening.
Friday, John Roberts was back to NY, and American Morning kicked off an hour early to accommodate all the caucus news.
Saturday, John King hosted the New Hampshire version of Ballot Bowl from Bedford, NH, while Dana Bash and Suzanne Malveaux reported from various sites around the state. Tuesday should be very interesting to watch!
CNN Headline News' Robin Meade will be one of the judges for the 2008 Miss America Pageant. The contest will air on Saturday, January 26, 2008 Live from Planet Hollywood, Las Vegas, on TLC. Here are a few excerpts from the press release:
This year’s panel of judges is comprised of experts in each of the fields that a young woman must excel in, in order to be named Miss America. Miss America must be beautiful, talented, intelligent and well-spoken, a leader, have a commitment to her community, be contemporary in her style and fashion - a relatable and individual ‘it girl’ who can connect with today’s modern woman, as well as being physically fit.
From the Communications/Interview Field - Robin Meade – As the lead news anchor for Headline News’ morning show, “Morning Express with Robin Meade,” she has anchored the network’s coverage of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Before joining CNN, Meade worked at NBC Chicago where she covered the 1996 Olympics, which included reporting on the Centennial Olympic Park bombing. Meade is a former Miss Ohio who competed in the 1992 Miss America Pageant. She is the recipient of two Emmy Awards.
Last night CNN showed off their impressive new Election Center as they reported the results from the Iowa Caucuses. Here are a few more photos from the event. (Click on the photo for a larger view.) (Photo Credit: Ted E. Pio-Roda for CNN/2008)
Wolf Blitzer & Lou Dobbs
CNN Election Center
John King, Gloria Borger & David Gergen
Anderson Cooper talking with Jack Cafferty
Wolf Blitzer talking with Dana Bash
Jeffrey Toobin
Wolf Blitzer in the CNN Election Center
Bill Schneider & Soledad O'Brien
Jack Cafferty, Donna Brazile & William Bennett
Wolf Blitzer
David Gergen & Suzanne Malveaux
Anderson Cooper, John King, Gloria Borger, David Gergen & Suzanne Malveaux
Mystery Journalist
Can you name this CNN journalist?
Do these eyes remind you of anyone? Let us know what your guess is in the comments and I'll post the answer in Sunday night's post.
Happy New Year everyone! Hopefully everyone had a great holiday season. Now that it is over, it is time to move to a different season. It is political season. More specifically, election season. After almost a year of campaigning, the first of many primaries and caucuses happened today in Iowa.
Tonight CNN's political team which included; Wolf Blitzer; Anderson Cooper; Soledad O'Brien; Lou Dobbs; John King; Gloria Borger; Tom Foreman; Candy Crowley; Suzanne Malveaux; Jack Cafferty; David Gergen; Jeffrey Toobin; Donna Brazile; William Bennett; Bill Schneider; Dana Bash; Mary Snow; Jessica Yellin; Joe Johns; Roland Martin; Carl Bernstein; Abbie Tatton and Larry King. The team brought us the results as they came in fast and furious and were able to project both Mike Huckabee and Barack Obama as the winners of their respective parties in the Iowa caucuses.
Instead of me trying to explain a process I really don't understand, I will let pictures from tonight's coverage tell the story.
Tonight I leave you with this thought....
In five days we get to do this all again in New Hampshire!!!
Don't forget to tune in to CNN's special programming tonight at 8 p.m. that leads into a special midnight edition of "Larry King Live."
David Bohrman, vice president of news and production and the Washington, D.C. bureau chief for CNN, is shown with the new multi-touch screen. The screen allows two people to work simultaneously to explain complicated subjects, like Iowa caucusing. Mr. Bohrman moved to NYC for the next few weeks to lead the primary coverage.
Wolf Blitzer in the state-of-the-art CNN Election Center in NYC last night. Images by Ted E. Pio-Roda for CNN/2008.
It seems that much of today's post is courtesy of CNN's American Morning. First up is a clip of Dr. Gupta sharing some big news for fans of Planet in Peril.
Next, have you ever wondered just what is a caucus and how does it function? Here's a very simple explanation of a very complicated process.
MAKING SENSE OF THE HOLIDAY WEEK RATINGS...^ (You Can’t, So We’ll Look At The Time periods)
What a week – Dec. 24 – 28, 2007! We all went into it knowing the audience levels would be very low, because they always are. Then we had all news divisions (cable and network) scrambling to cover a major story on Thursday. CNN broke the story of the assassination of Ex-Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto at 7:21AM, EST on Thursday and was the only news organization with live reports for quite awhile because they have a producer based in country. Most channels then covered the story by satellite voice-over and stand ups outside of the country supplemented with footage feeds supplied by Pakistan’s television stations. Fox News and MSNBC went back to reruns or anchor subs on Friday primetime, so making sense out of the week is like trying to clean up after New Year’s Eve. CNN stayed mostly live with the assassination story on Friday with a repeat special on Afghanistan (8PM) Wolf Blitzer subbing for LKL (9PM) that included live reports from Nic Robertson (satellite from Switzerland) and Anderson Cooper and analyst Peter Bergen from Karachi, Pakistan. And at 10PM, a live edition of AC360 aired from Pakistan. Just as an FYI, most network news sent personnel from NY, London, (Lara Logan from Baghdad) and Christmas week anchor subs continued.
All audience averages include the live Thursday broadcasts from all cable channels. All other days of the week were filled with repeat specials or anchor subs, so let’s get into the week:
8PM: Fox News: 299,000 CNN: 195,000 MSNBC: 197,000
These numbers are really meaningless. Monday (Christmas Eve) O’Reilly did its lowest number I’ve ever seen with a repeat of his visit to Afghanistan. CNN did not carry an “Out in the Open” this week. Monday on CNN had a repeat of “What Would Jesus Do?” MSNBC had already gone into its "DocBloc" mode. Tuesday and Wednesday also showed all repeat programming or repeats of specials/investigations on all three channels. Thursday we’ll look at separately as that was a live news day for everyone. Friday was back to repeats on Fox News; CNN carried a Special Investigation at 8PM. CNN was a solid #2 on Thurs/Friday evening even though the week average doesn’t show it.
9PM: Fox News: 261,000 CNN: 238,000 MSNBC: 141,000
Again, a complete mix of taped specials, repeat investigations, "DocBlocs", repeat LKL’s other than Thursday/Friday made the 9PM hour very uneventful. Thursday will be looked at separately. CNN was once again a solid #2 on Thursday/Friday evening and for the week.
10PM: Fox News: 248,000 CNN: 220,000 MSNBC: 226,000
Fox had a special on Monday on Jesus, a solid block of repeat Bill O’Reilly programs on Tuesday, and repeats of GRETA on Wednesday and Friday. Christmas Eve, the 10PM hour of CNN registered a very low 78,000 viewers for “Rescuing Youssif” which unfortunately was the reason the time period was third for the week. One bright spot – the repeat of “Planet in Peril” aired on Christmas night starting at 8PM, and the 10-12MD block of the program (part two of the four hour special) DOUBLED the 8pm performance with 187,000 for Adults 25-54. That is really an excellent delivery considering how many times the special has aired – and yes it beat the repeats of Bill O’Reilly, 10P-12MD, but not MSNBC’s “Docbloc.” Wednesday was “Cooperless” and delivered average ratings – 233,000. Friday’s special edition of AC360 live from Pakistan barely missed beating a GRETA sub of Catherine Herridge – one could call it a statistical even delivery with only 5,000 viewers separating the two programs. Still, CNN was once again a solid #2 Thursday/Friday.
THURSDAY, Dec. 27 PROGRAMMING COVERING THE ASSASSINATION IN PAKISTAN:
8PM: Fox News: 459,000 +35% over the channel week average CNN: 328,000 +41% over the channel week average MSNBC: 296,000 +33% over the channel week average
Bill O’Reilly did not come back to his program, as it really isn’t hard news. Fox News carried hard news with reports in a variety of ways to cover the story from Pakistan. CNN had Wolf Blitzer in the anchor chair instead of an “Out in the Open,” taking live reports from Pakistan with Anderson Cooper, Peter Bergen, Nic Robertson out of Switzerland as well as other reports. “Countdown” was live with Keith Olbermann, relying on NBC News for any reports out of Pakistan.
9PM: Fox News: 434,000 +40% over the channel week average CNN: 385,000 +38% over the channel week average MSNBC: 130,000 +8% over the channel week average
Fox News continued its hard news coverage of the breaking story from Pakistan and took the time period. Wolf Blitzer, subbing for LKL and handling live reports as he did in the 8PM hour, boosted the 9PM performance strongly from the rest of the week. MSNBC, oddly went back to its “Docbloc” format and the viewership suffered substantially. It was the one hour where viewers clearly expected the news to continue and tuned out.
10PM: Fox News: 429,000 +42% over the channel week average CNN: 375,000 +41% over the channel week average MSNBC: 251,000 +10% over the channel week average
GRETA came back for a live program to continue to carry news of the Pakistan crisis. Anderson Cooper was also back in the anchor chair for a live program continuing hard news for 30 minutes until John King took over. Cooper had announced he would be covering the assassination live from Pakistan Friday evening. And the AC360 numbers might be a little low based on how Nielsen computed a 7PM broadcast on the West Coast because AC360 did not air at 10PM – it’s stronger time period for the night. MSNBC stayed with its “Docbloc” and viewers, clearly expecting it to be there, tuned back in from a low delivery at 9PM.
CNN’s primetime programming had extremely high audience increases on Thursday night against the week audience average.
And just a side note: You are all probably seeing the “year-end” rating recaps being issued by various channels and networks. Nice publicity releases, but the industry rates the programs on a ratings year that is very different than a calendar year. The 2007/08 Television season began Sept. 24, 2007 and will end with the end of the May Sweeps – May 21, 2008. While advertisers will continue to track ratings delivery up until the start of the official new season – September 21, 2008, no one in television really looks at ratings performance on a calendar year basis. Upfront ratings guarantees are most important for the advertiser, and they are based on quarters beginning late Sept, 2007 and ending September 2008.
See you next week and let me know if you have any questions. Happy New Year! RATINGS GURU
^Courtesy Nielsen Media Research; Adults 25-54 LIVE+SAME DAY (LS) Fast Track Nationals.
Happy New Year and welcome to 2008! I hope you had a wonderful New Year's Day. One of my family's traditions for this day is watching the Mummers Parade(go Fralinger!). It's one of the things about this time of year that I really look forward to and at least it keeps us from talking about politics for a few hours!
In a recent post, TVNewser had responses from several journalists about their expectations for 2008 for themselves. Below is an excerpt from the post that includes the responses they received from three CNN journalists (past and present):
... our respondents complete the sentence, "In 2008, I expect...":
• MSNBC's Tucker Carlson: "To spend more time in sub-zero primary states, and to wear more makeup. I've got a pretty good shot at achieving both."
• CNN's Don Lemon: "To continue to harness my no-nonsense, aggressive reporting style; viewers tell me it's refreshing and they appreciate it. I also would like to help as many children as possible to get a decent education in New Orleans, as knowledge is the power that will eventually lead them out of their current morass."
• CNN Headline News' Linda Stouffer: "To spend more time reading novels and less time getting stressed out."
For you news junkies out there, TVNewser also posted 5 Questions with broadcasting legend Walter Cronkite.
The weather this time of year can be frightful, but that doesn't stop CNN correspondents from reporting on the candidates running for President.
Tuesday was the CNN Ballot Bowl '08 which spent seven hours taking an unfiltered look at the candidates. The Ballot Bowl included reports from Suzanne Malveaux, Bill Schneider, Candy Crowley, Jessica Yellin, Mary Snow, Dana Bash, and John King. Sometimes those reports came from nice heated spaces indoors, but others had journalists braving the elements.
Later on in the day, Jeanne Moos filed her own report focusing on those cold temperatures.
I have one more video clip for you, this one comes from Monday's American Morning. John Roberts recently received some get well wishes from a well known fan.
CNN Adds Emmy to List of Awards for Digital Newsgathering Innovations TV Academy Recognizes CNN’s Portable System as Industry Standard for Field Reporting
